6th International Symposium on Soil Organic Matter

Session 2c: C sequestration and climate change

Chair: Pete Smith (University of Aberdeen, UK)

Soil carbon sequestration has been studied for well over 150 years, and its importance for supporting many agronomic and ecological functions has been recognised. The vital role of soil carbon sequestration in the global carbon cycle, and hence its role in climate change, began gathering interest from the 1980s. Over the past 30-40 years, soil carbon sequestration has gone from an obscure footnote of biogeochemistry / climate science, to centre stage in actions to curb climate change, as exemplified by the “4per1000” initiative arising from the Paris Climate Agreement. This session encourages contributions from across spatial scales, and across sub-disciplines, to provide the state-of-the-art in our understanding of soil carbon sequestration and climate change – and how soil carbon sequestration can help deliver our ambitious climate change mitigation targets.